The key to enjoying great sound with these is to use the right size inserts and putting them in the way they were designed. These earphones need to be inserted into the ear as if they were ear plugs. When inserted correctly, all you should be able to hear is your own breathing. There should be zero background/outside noise. Only then will you hear incredible, isolated audio. Can't stress enough reading the instructions carefully.These are a very good value and Musician's Friend is a great place to order them.

Comfortable, but don't sound near as good as the Shure SE215. I used Shure SE215 playing on stage, and tried music on them, and they really blew me away. Amazing sound! Didn't have enough for the Shure SE215 so decided to try these, hoping the sound quality might be close. Not close. 1. bass relatively absent2. mid-highs a bit tinny. 3. Noise isolation good, and comfortable. Just average sort of cheap sound. Not really bad, but in all honesty I don't recommend getting them. They're quite comfortable, and I believe they seem to be made well. But, I'm going to save up for the Shure SE215.

This replaced Shure's discontinued low end noise canceling model that I finally destroyed by catching on the gym equipment one too many times and couldn't get repaired. Since this is used in the gym then I will miss the short line, often used at concerts with my NANO, that used a male/female connector to an extension line. Hence, this unit may not last long once I start catching it on handles and jerking the buds out of my ear or the 3.5mm plug out of the iPOD. What may be ideal for me is a bluetooth headset with noise canceling ability and no wires to get caught on equipment.